


Live & Let Die

by o0aurora0o



Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Age Difference, Age Regression/De-Aging, Alternate Universe - Gangsters, Alternate Universe - Mob, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Angst, Crying, F/F, Femslash, Fighting, Fluff, Gang Leader!Tony, Gang Violence, Gun Violence, Hydra (Marvel), Manipulation, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pietro Is A Protective Bro, Pietro Maximoff Lives, Slow Burn, Strangers to Lovers, kind of, oc is close to 30, wanda is around 20
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-17
Updated: 2018-11-20
Packaged: 2019-08-25 00:10:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 19,667
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16650544
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/o0aurora0o/pseuds/o0aurora0o
Summary: Ace is the infamous gang member of The Avengers. Wanda Maximoff is the little sister of infamous gang member Pietro Maximoff. When Pietro trusts Ace to take care of his sister after an attack on their lives, an unexpected friendship blooms, which turns into something more.Gang/Mob!AU. Wanda x OFC.





	1. Chapter 1

**_Wanda_ **

"I promise I will be back before midnight,  _malá sestra_ ," Pietro had assured her. "You do not need to worry about me.” He had placed a kiss on her forehead and closed the apartment door behind him.

He always made promises like that, but he never stuck to them, always certain that this little sister would not call him out on it. She didn't of course, because she knew that what he did was important. Working in the mob had its benefits like money and protection from the people of the streets, but it didn't make it any less dangerous for Pietro and herself. People would do anything to get to him, and sometimes that included hurting Wanda.

Pietro was part of The Avengers, one of the biggest and most powerful gangs in America. Tony Stark was the founder but Steve Rogers was unofficially elected the leader, getting the nickname Captain in return. They all had names that were similar to Steve's to keep a certain degree of anonymity, Pietro explained to her one day. If they were to discuss business with another mob, they would use their code names or stick simply to first names in order to protect their families, if they had any. Pietro had the name Quicksilver due to his agility and ability to pickpocket someone in record time without being noticed, and also because of his infamous silver hair which he dyed from brown. She never understood why but didn't once question him.

Wanda was sat in an oversized shirt in her dark living room, the only light source being from the TV when she heard light footsteps tread up the stairs that lead to the apartment. She looked at the clock above the television and saw that it was an hour past midnight.

The door opened and her brother walked in, greeted her with a small smile and then stepped to the side. There was a woman with him, a tall figure shrouded by darkness. Wanda hoped she wouldn't have to get out her earplugs for the night. It would not have been the first time he brought a lady friend over.

"Wanda," Pietro smiled, walking towards his little sister. He leaned down and pressed a kiss to her forehead. "I'm sorry that I am late again. I did not mean to keep you up."

"Do not worry,  _bratku_ ," she managed a smile back, pressing down her annoyance. "Who is your friend?"

The woman in question stepped closer after shutting the door behind her, hands tucked into the pockets of her leather jacket as she stood slightly behind Pietro. Pietro glanced back at the woman and the woman nodded like she was giving him permission. Wanda's eyebrows furrowed.

"This is Ace," he introduced rather awkwardly. "Part of The Avengers." So, business then, not pleasure. Pietro sometimes brought the members around, so it was not much of a surprise. Wanda met Natasha and Steve and enjoyed both of their companies. Tony Stark was a bit too... boisterous for her taste, but he seemed pleasant, too.

"You must be the baby sister," Ace nodded towards her, one side of her face bathed in the dim glow of the TV screen, so Wanda could not really see her. "Not much of a baby, though."

"Ace," Pietro hissed, turning to point his finger in her face. "My sister? Off-limits."

Ace held her hands up in mock surrender as Wanda flushed bright red. "Making an observation, Silver. I'm not gonna fuck your little sister." Wanda burned an even brighter red, thankful that it was too dark for them to notice. "Anyway," she clapped her hands together, turning back to Pietro, "we’ve got business to discuss."

Pietro rolled his eyes and Ace gave Wanda a little salute with a side-smirk and wink, before the two moved to the meeting room, shutting the door behind them.

* * *

A few hours later, Wanda was still awake, tucked underneath a thick blanket, but was beginning to drift off when the meeting room door opened. Pietro and Ace exchanged a few words that the sleepy woman could not hear and then the woman slapped her brother on the shoulder, before moving across the room to look out of the full-length window which took up the entire wall.

"You got a better view than me, Silver," Ace said, arms crossed over her chest. Her dark silhouette stood out against the bright lights of the city below. "Does Stark pay you extra or something?"

"No, I just know how to spend money correctly." Pietro's shadowed head turned to look at Wanda, who seemed asleep. "But... yes, he technically does. I have someone else to take care of."

"I know the feeling," Ace muttered, laughing softly. "Gotta be nice though. Getting back home and looking at this view. It's fucking gorgeous."

"Yeah," Pietro quietly agreed. "I hope we get to keep it."

"Hydra's stuck in a loop," Ace stated, keeping her voice low. Wanda's ears perked up at that. Pietro rarely went into detail about business, but she knew that Hydra was an opposing gang, known widely for their brutal torture. "Especially now, since pretty much everyone fled after Shield took them down. Unless they find somewhere to regroup, we're in the safe."

"For now," Pietro added. "It doesn’t mean they won't attack us again. If we don't take the threat seriously, they will strike, and it will hurt us."

"This isn't like last time, Silver," Ace said. Wanda listened in confusion. "Rumlow isn't holding the reins anymore. He's dead."

"Because you disobeyed orders, Ace," Pietro argued. "If we had him in for questioning--"

"The media would be five feet up our asses and he would have escaped anyway," she interrupted, turning her head to look at Pietro. "Steve doesn’t agree with what happened, but everyone knows that it was for the best he was gone. He was controlling Schmidt and now he's not. It gave us the opportunity to show that we're serious about our threats, so now he won't even think twice about making a move. Hydra is three times smaller than us."

"Doesn't mean they're not a threat, Ace" Pietro pointed out. "Cut off one head--"

"And two more shall take its place," Ace finished. "Yeah, it's a shit quote and logistically impossible."

Wanda caught her brother shrugging a shoulder. "It's not just the gang that it's in danger."

"Silver," Ace warned.

"Strucker went after your family, Ace," he said. Wanda's frown deepened.

"And we're not talking about this," Ace snapped, a little bit too loudly judging by the fact she hurriedly glanced towards Wanda still form. "He's been compromised," she whispered. "He isn't the issue here."

"But he's still out there."

A loud  _bang_  cut their conversation short, and Wanda sat up.

Pietro and Ace got into action immediately, the former rushing towards Wanda and the latter pulling a gun from the back of her jeans.

Pietro whispered  _come on_  and  _it's okay_  as he got her out of her seat, but before he could drag her to safety, the door burst open, sending splinters flying everywhere.

Wanda was pulled behind Pietro's form and she clung desperately to his back, his shirt balled up between her fists. She looked to her right and saw that Ace had a hard look on her face, gun in her grasp but not aimed towards the intruders. Her finger was touching the trigger.

"We do not want trouble," a thick Russian accent spoke. "We just want Ace."

"A lot of people want me, big guy," Ace replied, her eyebrow twitching and head tilted. "Why do you?"

"We do not discuss business."

Wanda peered around her brother's shoulder just in time to see the man raise his heavy gun towards the woman. Before he could pull the trigger, though, Ace pushed herself forward and slid on her knees towards the intruder, kicking her leg out and twisting her body last second to catch his ankle. He stumbled forward and hit the ground as his gun slid out of his grasp.

Pietro quickly moved forward and kicked the gun away as Ace punched the man hard on the head, knocking him out. She pulled up the unconscious man's sleeve and cursed.

"Hydra?" Pietro asked, pulling Wanda close to his side. The girl was shaking, grabbing onto the hand holding her shoulder.

"Who the fuck else?" Ace muttered, standing up. She shook her head and rubbed her eyes in agitation, fists clenched tightly. "Right after I called them spineless, no less." Wanda leaned forward slightly and narrowed her eyes at the man's forearm. There was an angry red scar burned into his skin in the shape of what looked like a three-headed octopus.

"More will be on their way," Pietro stated, letting go of his sister. He bent down and grabbed the abandoned gun from the floor, hitting some kind of button on the side. Bullets fell out of the magazine and hit the floor with quiet  _tinks_. "Get Wanda out of here, Ace, take her to one of Stark's safe-places."

Ace opened her mouth in obvious protest but Wanda beat her to the punch. "You cannot send me away with a complete stranger, Pietro. Take me to Tony Stark instead. It is safe there."

"Wanda--"

"No, I am  _not_  leaving you--!"

" _Budete ma počúvať a robiť, ako hovorím!_ " Pietro shouted, sending the girl into a shocked silence.  _You will listen to me and do as I say!_

"I'm not leaving you here alone, Silver," Ace said, surprisingly agreeing with the girl. "You said it yourself, more will be on their way and you can't fight them alone."

"They're going to be here for the documents," Pietro said, glancing at Wanda. "We cannot let them get those files, Ace. We  _cannot_."

They stared at each other in silence for a few moments; Pietro's gaze of stubborn determination and Ace's of impassiveness clashing in the middle. They broke it when multiple pairs of heavy footsteps rapidly approached the apartment.

"Ace, please," Pietro whispered in desperation.

"You cannot fight them all, Pietro," Wanda's voice cracked, her breathing coming in heavy.

"I'm not going to," he replied. "They call me Quicksilver for a reason, baby sister."

Ace gripped the gun in her hand, head cocking to the side in exasperation. "I'm kicking your ass next time I see you," was all she said before grabbing Wanda's arm.

"Pietro," Wanda whispered helplessly, stumbling backwards with the woman's steps.

"I'll be fine," he said with a small grin. "They won't see me coming."

Ace managed a small laugh. "Asshole."

And then Wanda was being dragged to the fire escape, where the cold air bit into her skin.

* * *

**_Ace_ **

The girl's legs were tucked to her chest and her face turned towards the window of the car to hide the tears streaming down her face, but Ace could see her body shaking from her peripheral. They made it down the fire escape and ran into two of Hydra's goons that Ace steadily moved around without being noticed.

She would have simply fought them but having a whimpering girl clinging to her arm changed things. In the parking lot, Pietro's tyres were slashed but her Jeep was still perfectly intact, she noted after checking over every inch of the vehicle, much to the woman's relief. If her car was tampered with, she’d be pissed as hell.

After Ace was certain that they were not being followed, she slid off her leather jacket and handed it to Wanda, who readily accepted it. She was only wearing a sleep shirt and shorts, so the poor girl must have been freezing running out in the rainy New York.

"We've got about a two-hour drive ahead of us," Ace broke the frosty silence, tapping her fingers against the steering wheel. Wanda shifted her head in the woman's direction but didn’t look at her. "Maybe an extra half hour since we gotta take a few back alleys. Doubt we're being followed but can't take the risk."

"Where are we going?" the girl mumbled, her Slovak accent thick from exhaustion.

"A place called Ramsey, 'bout 15 minutes from Oakland," Ace replied. "Stark has a bunch of safe-places around the country so we'll be good there. Might have to go around Connecticut if they catch up."

Wanda gave a small nod in response, leaning her head back against the window.

"You know, uh," Ace started, "I know it means jack shit coming from me, but your brother'll be fine. Probably doesn't make a difference but Stark has some phones hidden in the safe-house, they have their own separate wavelength or something so Hydra won't be able to hack into anything, and we'll get a hold of him then. He'll tell us what's going on and we'll make it back to New York in no time."

There was a slight pause. "You are right," the girl whispered. "It does not make a difference."

Ace chewed her lip and opted not to reply, instead leaning forward to turn on the cassette player.  _One_  by Metallica blasted from the speakers making Wanda jump, so Ace repeatedly hit the volume button to turn it down until it was quiet, as opposed to turning it up high as she would have preferred. The girl next to her was going through enough shit, and Ace didn't want to make her uncomfortable.

She was, what? In her late teens or very early twenties and she didn't know if her brother was dead or not. Ace wasn't lying when she said Pietro would have made it out unscathed. He's been in more difficult situations than having to fight a couple of Hydra members.

Schmidt wouldn't have ordered an attack like that, especially since his numbers were dwindling and Hydra was half the size of The Avengers. Ace was present at the meeting they signed contracts ensuring that they would stay on peaceful terms with one another, standing next to Tony Stark like a bouncer at a club. She wasn't necessarily his bodyguard, but everyone in the mob knew not to fuck with her, so it benefited Tony. He wasn't a hands-on man when it came to action, but boy did he know how to make high-quality tech; from the protective gear he gave his team to some of the more technological stuff that Ace didn't know the first thing about, the man was a genius.

It was about an hour into the drive when Ace noticed that an SUV had been following her path for around 15 minutes. Generally, it wouldn't be unusual since they were in the city and a lot of people were travelling the same routes, but going down the smaller roads at 4 a.m. couldn't be a coincidence. They weren't directly behind her but made it seem like they were taking a different route by pulling into a different lane from hers, which was smart, but not good enough to escape Ace's notice.

After several tense minutes, the SUV pulled off the intersection and Ace sighed in relief. That could have gone bad.

"Why can't we go to Stark's tower?" Wanda asked, nearly making Ace jump in her seat. "Why do we have to a different area?"

"It's protocol," she responded truthfully. "If even one of us are compromised, it means the rest of us could be, too, including Stark. So... imagine if I got a call from Steve or someone, and he said that it's safe where he is now and that I could drop by.” It’s happened before, so good enough example. “There's a chance he's being held hostage and is bait for me to go to him. I'll get overpowered and then probably killed." Wanda looked over her shoulder with wide eyes. "Well, that's worst-case scenario. And I'd know that Steve was lying because, like I said before, protocol. And I know my team inside and out."

"So this has happened before?"

"Yup," Ace replied, popping the p. The girl might not be warm towards her but at least she was talking. "Several times, actually. At least in my case."

If Wanda wanted to know any of the stories, she didn't ask. "Is Ace your real name?"

"Nah," she managed a laugh. "Just a dumb nickname I got when I joined."

"A code-name?" Wanda asked. "Like they call Pietro Quicksilver?"

"Kind of a code-name, yeah, but no one knows my real name," Ace informed her, much to the girl's surprise. "I know, right? Maybe Stark knows, but it's doubtful since my files were burned to the ground years ago."

"Oh," she whispered. "So why Ace?"

"In my old gang, the one before Avengers, I didn’t have one," Ace started. "I mostly just got called girl or kiddo by the other guys. It was a small gang, very much dead now, but it was the only thing I really knew. It was mostly just missions for me, since I was a 16-year-old kid who no one would suspect, and one of my assignments was to rob Tony Stark." She looked to her right and saw that the girl's eyebrows furrowed. "It was during a game of poker, one of those typical movie scenes where they're in a dark basement with bouncers everywhere. They wouldn't let me in at first because I was a kid, but Stark thought it'd be amusing to watch some teenage girl playing against a group of several grown men." She chuckled. "Wasn't amused when I won 3 million."

"At 16?" Wanda gasped. 16 mustn't have been that long ago for her, but it felt like a lifetime for Ace.

"Yeah, one of the other men there - Stone, I think? - he was pissed as hell. Lost his shit, nearly flipped over the damn table and threatened me with more than a few colourful words. I took the money and ran out, but some of the bouncers grabbed me. I fought them - I was trained in my old gang to be a little shit and fight dirty, and the guys didn't want to hit some teenage girl, so I escaped." The song changed to Panama by Van Halen, one of Ace's favourites. "Stark found me in some dingy shed I was living in a few months later, asked me if I wanted to join a better gang that would give me some of its profit. I was selfish, and I had a baby brother to take care of so I accepted, and the gang I was in before died. I was a big deal, apparently.”

Ace shook her head. "Uh, anyway, I'm getting ahead of myself," she continued. "Stark gave the nickname Ace to me because Ace of Spades was the last card I beat him with. And I was basically mute back then, so I didn't want to share my real name."

"You were mute?" Wanda repeated. She was awfully chatty very early morning, apparently.

"Maybe mute isn't the right word," Ace re-thought. "I only spoke to the people I trusted. Just… ignored everyone else. I was a kid, had no idea what the real world was about, never trusted anyone in my life, and I thought everyone was a monster looking out to use me and hurt me, honestly.” Her expression softened as she stared out into the dark expanse of road. “Stark was the first guy who ever proved me wrong. I grew out of that habit eventually when the gang got bigger and way more people joined. I guess I was one of the original members. I was there after Steve and Natasha but before Silver. Pietro." Wanda hummed, pulling her legs closer to her body. "You can go to sleep, kid. We've still got over an hour left and you must be exhausted."

"I'll be okay," she mumbled.

Not even five minutes later, the girl's breathing slowed, and she was fast asleep.

* * *

Ace parked the car an hour and a half later after driving through miles of woods. The safe house was a small cabin located in the literal middle of nowhere: the only way to access it would be to go through a restricted gate and then navigate through a very specific path in order to make it there.

It was no longer raining but the mud beneath Ace's boots was soggy and wet. Wanda was still sleeping with her leather jacket wrapped around her small body, so Ace took it upon herself to carry her bridal-style to the cabin.

She woke for a moment, looking completely dazed out, but then fell back asleep with her head resting against Ace's shoulder and hands tucked against her chest. Her lips were slightly parted, and Ace had to admit that she was hot.

God, Pietro would have her head if she told him that.

She managed to lean down and grab the key from under the plant-pot - very inconspicuous, she knew - without releasing her hold on the girl. She stepped into the cabin and kicked the door shut behind her, trying to do it as quietly as she could so Wanda wouldn't wake and walked towards the door that led to the main bedroom. She squatted down slightly to turn the handle and stepped into the cosy room.

Ace carefully tugged the blankets off the large bed - of course, Stark would have expensive sheets in a fucking  _safe house_  - and laid her down, tucking the blankets back up around her. She snuggled into the warmth and comfort right away, sighing contently before dozing off again.

Ace stepped out of the room and quietly closed the door behind her. She found the phone, the one that was separate from other lines, and picked up, hitting 616, the emergency contact. It worked similarly to a radio, so the lines connected were always on unless it was deliberately tampered with.

"Ace here," she reported quietly. "I'm in safe-zone Ramsey. No injuries or wounds. An SUV followed us for 20 minutes but left. Nothing else of importance to note. Does anyone copy?"

The line crackled. " _Ace?_ " Steve breathed. " _Thank god. I'll get Stark to look into the vehicle. Licence plate?_ "

"Black SUV, ends with 835," she told him. "Do you know if Silver made it out?"

" _Got a call from Foggy about an hour ago_ ," Steve said. " _Pietro got hit with a bullet but he's stable. Claire's fixing him up as we speak."_  Ace breathed, feeling a massive weight lift from her shoulders. " _What happened? Tony was freaking out, saying that Hydra took you hostage or something._ "

"Tell the old man to unclench. Don't want him to have a stroke." Ace couldn't help but feel touched that Tony was worried. "Silver and I were in a meeting about the recent Shield threat. We set up a meeting with Fury, walked out and then some Hydra goons said that they wanted me.” She shrugged. “I'm guessing dead since they were about a second from shooting me. Silver wanted to get the files in case they were after them and told me to get Wanda out of there. Didn't know if he made it out."

" _Wanda's okay?_ " Steve asked.

"A bit shaken up but fine," she said. "She's sleeping right now."

" _Okay. Stay there for the rest of the day until we figure out what happened. I'll plan a call with Schmidt and get back to you in a few hours. Tony might try to call you later. He’ll probably freak out._ "

"Got it. Stay safe, Cap."


	2. Late Start

**_Wanda_ **

Wanda awoke on soft sheets with the sun streaming in through the curtain, instead of in the uncomfortable Jeep. She briefly remembered waking up for a split moment to feel Ace lift her into her arms and carry her somewhere... Looking around, Wanda realised that she must have tucked her into bed, too.

With her cheeks flushed a pale red at that realisation, Wanda untangled herself from the bed and stood up, looking down and noticing that she was still wearing her sleep shorts and the woman's leather jacket. It was too big for her slight shoulders since Ace was much taller and broader than Wanda, but it was comfortable.

Wanda decided not to embarrass herself further by searching through the drawers opposite the bed, hoping that there would at least be some form of pants as opposed to her shorts which did nothing to protect her from the cold. She hit the jackpot when she picked up a pair of leggings from a pile.

The door to the bedroom was shut, but Wanda could hear the television on the other side, so she hurriedly removed her shorts, threw them on the unmade bed, and then shoved on the leggings, opting to keep on the warm jacket.

She cracked open the door and peeked through to see Ace sat on the couch, feet propped up on the coffee table, beer in hand and the TV turned to a programme that she didn't recognise. Wanda opened the door a bit more and flinched when it creaked.

Ace looked over the back of the couch and gave an easy smile. "Morning, kid," she nodded. "You feeling alright?"

"Yes," Wanda replied quietly, stepping into the living room after shutting the door behind her. "What time is it?"

"11," Ace replied. She gestured to the empty seat next to her. "Feel free to sit. The sofa's pretty comfortable. Props to Tony."

Wanda lowered her head and awkwardly moved to the empty couch cushion, perching down on it with her hands clasped in her lap. After a few moments of awkward silence - awkwardness on Wanda's side, at least - she shifted back and leaned back against the sofa. Ace was right, it was comfortable.

"Did you call that phone line?" Wanda asked.

"Yeah." Ace nodded slowly, eyes flickering to the girl whose gaze was set firmly on the TV. "Your brother's fine. Made it to one of our friend's houses with only a few very non-threatening injuries." Wanda physically slumped with relief, suddenly filled with the urge to cry. Her brother was fine. He was okay. "Steve's setting up a meeting for when we get back. You can see your big bro again." Wanda nodded wordlessly. "Do you, uh, want to switch the channel or anything?" she asked. "I know a lot of people don't like _The Price Is Right_. Including me, honestly. It's pretty shit."

" _The Price Is Right_?" Wanda echoed, her eyebrows pulling together. "What is that?"

Ace stammered for a moment, apparently caught off-guard by the question. "That's... a question I never thought anyone would ask me," she muttered. "Basically, they show the contestants an item and they have to guess how high the price of it is. The closer they are, the more money they win."

"That's... strange," she said. American culture was weird. "So, they win money by making assumptions."

"Yeah, I never got it either," Ace agreed, taking a swig of her beer. She licked away the condensation that wet her lips, Wanda’s eyes following the movement. "I personally prefer Korean dramas. Don't speak the language so I just come up with the plot in my head. They have any good shows in Slovakia?"

Wanda was surprised that Ace asked her with intrigue in her voice. She assumed Pietro told her where they lived before America.

"I moved here when I was young so there are not many I can think of," she answered. "Pietro and I would sometimes watch a children's show called  _Spadla z Oblakov_.” At the woman’s confused look, she explained, “It was about a girl who disguised herself as an alien and went to a town where the children helped her adjust to human life. She was smart but emotionless, like a strange doll. It looked like she was made of wax. It used to frighten me until they changed her character to appear more human."

"Huh, great kid's show," Ace hummed. "Though it does sound pretty interesting, albeit horrifying."

Wanda nodded but did not reply, turning her eyes back to the TV screen where the host was acting overly-enthusiastic to the point of it seeming fake.

The phone ringing in front of Wanda made the girl jump in her seat. Ace huffed and set down her beer on the table, hitting the loudspeaker button.

"Ace speaking," she said.

" _Ace?_ " Tony Stark's voice sounded panicked. " _Are you okay? Did they hurt you?_ "

"What? No." She shook her head. "I spoke to Steve earlier, jackass. No need to overreact, I’m fine."

" _Oh, no, of course, I'm not going to overreact when someone tried_ killing  _you just a few hours ago. Telling me not to overreact? You should be overreacting!_ "

"Dude, this happened more than a few times. I've been physically stabbed in the heart," she said matter-of-factly. Wanda gave her a questioning, slightly bewildered look, that she returned with a shrug. A story for another day, then. "Any update on the situation?"

Wanda heard Tony sigh. " _Yeah- just Schmidt being completely oblivious. Seriously, how does it slip past someone's notice that one of their guys are going to break into an expensive apartment complex to kill one of their rival's best members?_ "

"Yeah, I get it. You're a better leader than anyone else in America--"

" _In the world_ ," Tony corrected.

"Sure whatever," she said. "When are we in the clear to come back?"

" _Now, actually. It's what I called about_ ," he told her. Wanda nearly cried with relief. She couldn't sit and watch some crappy American show for the rest of the day. " _Come straight back to the Tower whenever you can_.  _Maximoff's here and he's all good, so you can tell little Maximoff the good news._ "

"Got it, boss."

" _Wait, before you hang up_ ," Tony said before Ace could end the call. " _Quill's gonna be there._ "

Wanda saw Ace's expression harden. "Quill?  _Peter Quill?_ " she repeated in a harsh tone. "Why the fuck is Peter Quill there, Tony? I'd rather stab myself in the throat than be anywhere near him."

" _Well, you better get a small knife to avoid dying_ ," Tony replied. " _Trust me, I hate him as much as you do but he knows all the back business, all the street talk, Ace. He might have something valuable_."

"The only thing he'll have that's valuable is your Noble Peace Prize bashed into his skull."

" _Yeah, well, if you're gonna kill him don't do it, a) with me present, and b) with my property._ "

"I guess we'll have to see how much of an asshole he is." She sighed in frustration, running a hand through her hair. "Tell him to stay out of my way. I'll see you soon, Tony." She hit end call and turned off the TV using the remote, before setting it down on the table. "Looks like we gotta get going, kid." Ace looked at the girl, her dark eyes burning into Wanda's. "Feel free to kip in the back seat. S'gonna be a boring journey."

"I will be okay," Wanda said quietly, standing up when the woman did. "Would you... like your jacket back?" she asked, tugging at the too-long sleeves of the leather jacket.

"Nah," Ace waved her off, throwing the beer bottle in the bin. "I have, like, 80 at home." Her eyes flickered to the clothing and she nodded approvingly. "And it looks better on you." Ace turned around in time to miss Wanda's cheeks reddening. 

Did… Did she just flirt with her?

"C'mon.” Ace turned, clapping her hands. “The sooner the better."

Wanda hurriedly followed the woman outside.

It was warmer and it stopped raining, but the ground was slightly soggy from the night before. She watched with her arms wrapped around her stomach as Ace locked the door and then placed the key in the gutter above her head.

They entered the Jeep that Wanda noticed had severe scratches on the side. Apparently, her expression gave her away when Ace explained:

"Yeah, gotta get that fixed. Some assholes tried running me off the side of the road a couple'a weeks back." When Wanda's eyes widened with both curiosity and shock, she quickly added, "They weren't trying to kill me or anything. Just wanted to scare me or some other dumb shit. Wasn't gang related but people who watch the news know my name." Wanda didn't watch the news, so she wondered what Ace got up to that it would warrant the news' attention.

With a twist of the ignition and a foot on a pedal, they started driving.

It began with miles of forests where sunlight flickered through the leaves of the trees, driving over an unused dirt track judging by the lack of tyre marks. It was pretty, nothing like the city. Wanda always wanted to live in the countryside rather than the big city, but Pietro would never allow her to live alone. She would be too scared to, anyway.

"So what's your deal, kid?" Ace asked as they pulled onto the main road. "Do you... what? Go to school? Have a job or something? Are you thinking of following in Silver's footsteps and joining The Avengers?"

"I used to work as a waitress but... some men tried taking me and Pietro forced me to quit," Wanda said. She saw the woman take her eyes off the road for a moment to regard Wanda with a curious gaze. "I was educated until we moved to America, until I took online classes. As for joining the gang... Pietro would not allow it in a million years."

"Seriously?" Ace asked with a scoff. "Man, what a hypocrite. I understand the whole needing to protect you thing, but... does he even tell you the shit that goes on? Like with Hydra and everything?"

"I know only what the newspapers tell me," she said, tapping her delicate fingers against her knee. "But no, I do not know much about Hydra. Natasha tried telling me one time but Pietro got angry. He yelled at her and then yelled at me."

"So you don't get to listen in on meetings or anything?" she asked, frowning. "Obviously not the classified shit, but the general stuff that the media finds out about anyway?"

"No, I do not," Wanda replied. She felt guilty for throwing her brother under the bus like this, but it felt nice that Ace cared enough to ask. "They would not care for my opinion anyway. I'm only 20 with no experience."

"And? By the time I was 17, Stark was taking my ideas and bringing them to life," Ace told her. "Having someone with no experience helps, you know. Silver barely spoke a word of English and had no clue how gangs worked, but we took on his ideas because they were good. Having an outsider's opinion helped us out a lot."

"Pietro would-"

"Forget about him," Ace cut her off. "What do  _you_  want? You're old enough to make decisions without your brother coddling you."

"He isn't coddling," Wanda argued.

"Don't ignore my question, kid," she warned, glancing over at her again. Wanda had her face turned towards the window, watching the other cars and people pass by. "What do you want?"

Wanda had to take a moment to think. She could answer honestly by saying that she  _wanted_  to know where Pietro would go for days. Why Hydra hated The Avengers so badly. How gangs work and how people are chosen for specific jobs... but those were just questions that could be answered.

"I want to be taken seriously."

Ace nodded thoughtfully, flashing a closed-lipped smile in her direction. "Yeah, I get that." Her eyes turned back to the road. "I get it."

* * *

**_Tony_ **

Ace was late, as always.

Tony always thought of her as one of the best in the business, a highly professional woman who took the gang as seriously as he did, but in reality, she was indifferent about it all. She grew up doing it, far longer than anyone else in The Avengers, and it was too late to go back to the normal life, so she didn't have much choice but to stay. Thinking about it now, Tony didn't know if she enjoyed this life or not. Natasha and Clint loved it, Tony liked being his own boss, Steve had his own military-style of operating so he liked having control, Pietro was on the fence because he liked what he did, but didn't want Wanda to get hurt, and he knew that Bruce would much rather live in the suburbs, away from the violence.

Ace was a strange thing, though. Tony always told her that she had potential to become the leader after himself and Steve, but she shrugged and stated that she wasn't looking to become the biggest face in the company. Yet she was still adamant on not leaving.

He offered her plenty of times a safe place to live where she could do whatever the hell she wanted, but she never took him up on it. She didn't even bring it up with him later on. Sometimes she was so dedicated to the job that she even became intimidating to  _Steve_ , but other times she would turn up with half a bottle of whiskey rolling around her bloodstream, drunk in a meeting.

She was one of the best fighters, even topping Natasha and Steve in Tony's opinion, extremely intelligent - street smart, not book - knew how to play characters when it came to missions. Ace could switch from seductress master to a brawler in a matter of seconds.

Tony was sat at the head of the table in the Tower’s boardroom, leg propped on his knee and a glass of Scotch in his hand. Happy was stood behind him like a damn bodyguard, even though Tony removed him from that position years ago, with Pepper, his wife, next to him, holding a binder. She was always holding a damn binder.

The room got so full of people that half of them weren't even sat at the table, either leaning against the walls or on a chair separate to the table. The ones lucky enough to sit the table were Tony sat on one end and Steve sat on the other, with Natasha, Clint, Rhodey, Thor and Quill sat on the sides.

Quill had his feet propped on the glass table and was picking at his nails, humming a tune under his breath in a way that made Tony have to bite his tongue. Ace was very likely going to hurt him when she walked in.

Pietro had his own separate chair, while Gamora stood behind Quill with her back against the wall. Logan was huffing on a cigar in the corner. He wasn't sure why Logan was here. He hated pretty much everyone in the room and did everything to generally avoid them.

"Where is she?" Pietro blurted, asking no one in particular. "She should have been here over 30 minutes ago."

Quill stopped his humming and raised his head. "Maybe she stopped on the layby with your little sister to give her a good time, up top!" He held his hand up to Gamora who was stood behind him, expecting a high five.

"You disgust me," Gamora said, turning her face away from the man.

"Come on, man--"

"Ace has a knack for being late, Pietro," Steve assured him. He really hated it whenever she was late for a meeting. "I know you're worried about Wanda, but--"

"Worried?" Pietro, who was usually on the more reserved side, near exclaimed. "Don't you tell me how—"

"Jeez, Silver, we're here," a new voice spoke up from the door. Ace walked in with a cautious red-head stepping out from behind her. Pietro jumped out of his seat immediately and ran to hug his sister, barging Ace out of the way.

Ace huffed but didn't argue, instead unintentionally taking a step closer to Logan, who was looking at her with judgement in his eyes. She did a double-take when she saw him, pointing her thumb over at him as she asked Tony, "Why the hell is he here?"

Logan shrugged, taking another puff of the cigar and blowing the smoke out in front of him. "It's fun watching everyone lose their shit," he grumbled. She raised her eyebrows at the man.

"Are you okay? Are you hurt?" Pietro, meanwhile, asked Wanda, holding her face between his large hands.

"I am fine,  _bratku_ ," she responded.

"You're late, Ace," Steve said in an agitated tone, ready to begin his scolding.

"I swung around my apartment to see if anyone decided to go through my shit," she explained. "Luckily it was in the clear. Nothing was moved."

"You took her to your apartment?" Pietro asked, now turning on the woman. "Where Hydra agents could have been there to kill you?"

Pietro took a threatening step towards Ace, who stayed stoic still with an impassive expression. Tony saw the others in the room tense up, even Logan narrowed his eyes at the other man.

"Are you questioning my ability, Maximoff?" she asked, tilting her head at him. He was around an inch shorter than the woman, so he had to bend his head slightly. "Because as I recall you were the one who decided that some files that held no valuable information were more important than getting your sister out of her home safely. Do you think I would have put her in that situation if I wasn't ready to protect her?"  _Don't answer that, don't answer that, don't answer that..._

"You’ve done it before."

Tony saw Ace's fist clench and her jaw tick. Wanda looked between them with wide green eyes, pulling at Pietro's shirt but he wouldn't budge.

"This isn't the time to argue, especially about petty shit that doesn't matter," Tony said. He hoped that Ace would listen to him. "Wanda's fine, she's right next to you and it looks like she doesn't want you to fight the woman who just saved her." He set his Scotch on the table and leaned forward. "Take a step back, Pietro. Because it'll get ugly if you don't."

Pietro didn't move. It didn't even look like he heard Tony's words until Wanda gave a final tug on his shirt.

"Don't do this," she whispered.

His expression turned to one of guilt as he took a step away from Ace, who turned and moved to stand by Tony's side. She nodded to Pepper who gave a small smile in return.

"Thank god that's over," Quill muttered. "The sexual tension was killing me. I'm kinda jealous."

"I swear to God, Quill, another comment like that and I'll break your fingers," Ace warned.

"Like you haven't before," he grinned cockily in response.

Ace fixed him with a glare. "How do you put up with him?" she asked Gamora.

"I don't."

"You need to wait outside,  _malá sestra,_ " Pietro turned around, shielding Wanda away from the room with his body.

They were expecting the girl to comply immediately, but her eyes darted to Ace who gave a mute nod of what looked like encouragement. Tony frowned, looking to Ace for an answer but she didn't even glance his way, her eyes focused solely on Wanda.

"I would like to stay."

Now  _that_  surprised Tony. Wanda was a shy, meek girl barely in her twenties who listened to her brother's orders like he was some kind of Mosiah. She never argued with him.

"That’s not happening, Wanda," Pietro stated.

"I hate to disagree with you twice in one day, Silver, but I think you should let her stay," Ace spoke up. Pietro turned to argue but she held up her hand, palm facing him, which silenced the man immediately. It was a thing in the gang, a strange thing that everyone complied with no matter what. If Ace held up her hand like that, she was going to be listened to no matter what. "You think she's incapable of making her own decisions because you're so worried about what will happen to her that you coddle her until she can hardly breathe. Everyone knows you love her but have you ever asked her what she wanted? If she wants to join or at least know what her brother is part of?"

Pietro looked down, guilt written all over his face.

"Trust me,” she continued, “I know what that's like. You love her and you don't want her to get hurt, but what you're doing now is going to hurt her more. She doesn't know how to defend herself. She doesn’t know what you do while you're away, even who our enemies are _._ If you keep this up, Silver," she shrugged, "you know what happened to my brother. I tried protecting him from it all and look what happened." Everyone in the room knew what she was talking about but Wanda, whose eyebrows drew together. "It's not my choice but it ain't yours either."

"Wanda?" Pietro questioned, looking over at her with soft eyes. "Is this what you really want?"

She fiddled with the sleeve of her leather jacket - was that Ace's? - and chewed on her lip. "I don’t want to upset you, Pietro," she said.

"You won't upset me," he returned, shaking his head. "What... Would you really like to stay?"

"Yes, Pietro, I would."

"Here," Steve was out of his chair right away, holding it out to Wanda. "You can have a seat."

Tony nearly rolled his eyes. "I don't think she wants to be the centre of attention, Stevie." And then to Wanda, "Do whatever you want, mini Maximoff."

Quill smirked and patted his thigh suggestively, which Pietro thankfully missed, but Wanda didn’t judging by her wide eyes and flushed cheeks. They didn't want an actual fight on their hands, and they all knew how protective Pietro was of Wanda.

"Jesus Christ, you guys," Natasha muttered, standing up and pulling the chair away from the table. "Sit down, Wanda. It's best to stick with us girls in a room full of testosterone-induced assholes."

" _Hey_ \-- _!_ " Quill began.

"Dude," Rhodey spoke up from next to him, holding up his hand. "Just stop. Give up."

"I don't know," Quill hummed as Wanda settled on Natasha's chair, looking at Natasha with a raised eyebrow. Wanda settled down comfortably in the chair with Pietro leaning against the wall behind her, Ace stood slightly in front of Pepper and next to Natasha. The three most frightening women in Tony's life, all directly behind him. "I'd like to piss off the infamous Black Widow, let her beat me around a bit--"

"Get your dick out of your hand and jerk off later, you sick fuck," Ace snapped, shaking her head with her arms crossed over chest. "Unless you want your tongue ripped from your throat, bite it."

"Ripped out  _Game-of-Thrones_  style?"

"Peter," Steve interrupted, exasperated. Steve was the only one who called him by his first name since he somehow didn't hate the man. "This is neither the time and place. And Ace," he looked at Ace whose eyes hardened, "stop threatening to rip off appendages. Just twelve hours ago one of our own was nearly killed." Tony could tell it was a slight exaggeration judging by Ace's expression. She always had it handled.

Tony clapped his hands together. "Great. Let's start the meeting!"


	3. Quiet Moments

**_Ace_ **

Wanda looked very out-of-place surrounded by the team, especially Logan, yet Ace couldn't help but admire the girl for her huge balls. The last thing she was expecting was for her to tell Pietro what she wanted, and she definitely didn't expect Pietro to agree so readily. Sure, there was reluctance, but it was a fast agreement for a man who looked like he was about to headbutt Ace for just taking Wanda to her apartment.

"Did Schmidt have anything useful to say?" Ace asked, leaning over to look at Tony. 

"Nothing but promises that it wasn't him," Tony informed her, rolling out his chair a little so he could see her. "We have the recording if you wanna hear?"

"No point." She shook her head. "He might be a weasel but he's also a coward. He wouldn't do anything like that, especially when it's someone close to the gang. Doesn't have the numbers to defend himself."

"So, you think it's someone else?" Clint asked, leaning forward on the table. "Like...?"

"Strucker," Steve finished, eyes darting to Ace's uncertainly.

"He does have a grudge against Ace," Natasha agreed. "More against her than anyone else. The Hydra goons weren't after you or Wanda, right?"

"No," Pietro answered. "He said that he was here for her Ace. That he did not want trouble and then tried shooting at her."

"So it was definitely a hit on just her, not you?" Tony asked.

"Yes," he confirmed.

"This Strucker man," Thor spoke up, his voice as booming as ever. Ace saw Wanda jump slightly, which was hardly a surprise since the man only spoke when he needed his thoughts to be confirmed. The most active voices in the meetings tended to be Tony, Steve and Ace, with Natasha, Clint, Pietro and Rhodey a step down. Bruce never talked unless he was asked something directly, Quill was only in meetings when Ace wasn't present, Gamora was the hit-woman so she never spoke unless spoken at, and Logan had literally never been in a meeting, so Ace didn't know what that was about. Pepper was the businesswoman who had all the statistics and factual information while Happy was practically mute. "He is the one you have history with, correct?"

"Dude, it sounds so sexual when you say it like that," Quill grimaced.

"Pipe it," Ace snapped, expression hardening. Quill put his fingers to his lips and raised his eyebrows a bit, silently asking her to go on. She was about three seconds from actually bashing his head in. "Yes, Thor. That's the guy." Wanda looked lost, but of course didn't say a word. Ace wanted her to speak up, wanted to hear her ideas. "We need to focus more on short-term plans rather than what we can find out in the long-term. Knowing who's behind it is nice but not when you have a bullet between your eyes."

"You're staying at the Tower," Tony said as more of an order than a recommendation. "It's the safest place in New York."

"Not if the enemy has torpedoes," Quill added. “Or suicide bombers. That was a mess. A gross mess.”

"Suicide bombers? Ace repeated, eyes flickering between Steve and Tony. “Am I missing something?”

Steve exhaled a deep breath. "Not suicide bombers." He gave Quill a pointed look. "As soon as we detained the guy at Pietro's apartment, he grabbed a knife from one of our officers and stabbed himself in the throat.” He cleared his throat. “Didn't make it."

Ace stared at him for a moment and then dragged a hand over her eyes when the reality hit. "So there are men out there willing to die just to land one blow on me? That's a great feeling, makes me feel all fucking warm and fuzzy inside."

"We won't let anything happen to you, Ace," Rhodey tried to assure her.

"I said the same thing to my brother a few days before he was killed, Rhodey," Ace bit out. "Don't try to bullshit me."

"I appreciate the long-term-short-term quote, but we have to know who was behind it in order to move onto the bigger picture," Tony spoke up. He raised his fingers and gestured for Pepper to move forward. "What have you got, Pep?"

"Bruce checked the man's body," Pepper began, leaning over Tony's side to set down the binder, opening to a specific page. Everyone leaned closer to try and get a good look, while Ace stepped forward to over Wanda's shoulder, her hand on the back of her chair. "He had the Hydra burn mark on his inner forearm, but it was still scabbing over which means it was done two to three weeks ago."

"So he's a new member?" Natasha asked.

"Yes, and Schmidt wouldn't send a new member to do a task as important as this," Pepper answered.

"That's one crossed off for now," Ace muttered. "Did you identify the body, Bruce?" she asked the scientist.

Bruce fiddled with the side of his glasses for a moment and flattened his palms over his shirt. He was always nervous when it came to business meetings. "Yes. His name was Raoul Strëinberg. We did a background check on the name and..." his swallowed as he looked at Ace, "Strëinberg is the German name which was later changed to Strucker when his relatives moved to America."

"Plot: thickens," Quill whispered.

"Strucker's relative came after me?" Ace needed him to confirm.

"It could be a coincidence," Bruce backtracked.

"But what are the chances that the guy who hates Ace more than anything would have the same last name as the guy who tried killing her?" Clint pointed out. "This might mean that Strucker's creating a new gang. Something not Hydra.”

"Must have used the symbol to deter us," Steve murmured.

"Or," Logan spoke up for the first time, still puffing on that damn cigar, "there could be someone on the inside giving info to these assholes." The room went still at the man's casual comment. No, no one would ever... That can't be right. No one on the team would ever betray anyone like that... would they? "Makes sense, don't it? Don't give a shit what any of you say but Ace is one of the best, I'm sure a lotta people would do anything to have power like that. Killing someone close to the team is gonna break 'em."

"I'm not the most powerful person here, Logan," Ace argued weakly. She couldn't even imagine someone--

"You ever pissed off anyone in this room?" he countered. She looked around the room and realised that everyone, every single face in that room besides Tony and Wanda, had every reason to hate her. Steve, Natasha, Pepper, Clint, Bruce, Rhodey, Pietro, Gamora, Quill... Thor didn't have much against her, but... no. Being an annoying bitch to deal with sometimes didn't mean that they'd be willing to kill her. "A lot of people want you dead, Ace. Not just outside of this building but probably in it, too."

"Stop," Tony demanded, shaking his head as if it was the most absurd idea. "You're planting ideas into our heads--"

"Just being realistic, Stark."

"Then Ace, myself and a few others will discuss it in private."

Logan huffed through a smirk, raising a knowing eyebrow. "You already got ideas on who it is, don't ya?"

"Shut the fuck up, Logan," Ace growled, her lip twitching. "Not a person in this room would betray the team, let alone send someone to murder me." Despite her words, she knew that Logan knew she was already having her doubts.

"Maybe it wasn't their intention to kill you," he said. "Maybe they wanted to keep you on your toes for a bit. Who knows."

"Maybe we should have a break," Bruce suggested, feeling the tension in the room rise dramatically. "Clear our heads and come back to this later. It's been a tough day."

"Ten minutes and I want you all back here," Tony said, chewing the end of his thumb in thought. Everyone stood from their seats and moved to make their way out, but his voice halted them. "Ace and Steve. Stay back for a minute."

Ace couldn't even force herself to look at the faces of people that brushed past her. Pepper gave a comforting squeeze to her shoulder as she passed her and whispered that it'll be okay.

Not too sure about that one, Pep.

"What's this about?" Steve asked after the door shut, although he already knew.

"Take a seat." Tony didn't look them in the eye, his chin in his hand and gaze cast to the glass table.

Steve and Ace shared a similar look of dejection before sitting down next to Tony on opposite sides of the table, turned so they were facing him.

After a few painful seconds, he said, "We need to consider a snitch. I hate to think that one our own would do this, but... we can't bury it in the sand. And I trust you two more than anyone else in that room, in my entire life pretty much, and Ace, you were obviously not behind your own attempted murder."

"Okay," Ace whispered. Her eyes were stinging, begging for her to close them and sleep. Or to cry. Maybe even both. "I know you already have some theories, Tony. Lay it on me. No point sugar-coating a steaming pile of shit."

"I'm ruling out Steve since he's here, Rhodey because I know him more than anyone in the world, Pepper because she loves you more than she loves me, and Bruce as he doesn't want to be part of this in the first place, so no," he said. “Not him.”

"Do you think it was someone in the room?" Steve asked, looking between Tony and Ace.

The woman sighed, propping her elbow on the table. "I can't, I just-" she rubbed her tired eyes, "I can't think right now. I'm still trying to come to terms with the fact that someone might have done this. I mean... I've known every single person in that room for years. Even Quill, for fuck's sake." She shook her head, removing her hands from her eyes. "What do you think?" she asked Tony.

"Honestly? I don't know," he replied.

"We need to discuss what their motives might be before we come to any conclusions," Steve said. "Let's start with Natasha."

"She's a spy who betrayed the Red Room, like Clint," Tony said. "You've gotten into more than a few fights with Clint, Natasha  _does_  have ties with Hydra, even if they're old..."

"But they abused them, Tony. That's why they left the Red Room," Ace finished. "Plus, Natasha isn't a snake. Neither is Clint. If either wanted to kill me, they wouldn't send someone else to do their dirty work."

Steve nodded in agreement. "I don't think it was anyone who was there before Ace."

"Ruling out Thor, too?" Ace asked.

"I guess so," Tony breathed. "Quill's a mercenary, loyal to no one."

"Could be getting paid to give intel," she added. "It wouldn't be the first time he's done something like that. Gamora isn't my biggest fan, either."

"You did kill her sister when you were 14," Steve said. Thanks for that reminder, Cap. "It's a motive."

"So they're on the  _be wary_  list," Tony muttered. "Maximoff?"

Ace's heart clenched at the thought.

"The Hydra goon was at their apartment, Pietro wouldn't put Wanda in that kind of danger," Steve argued.

"He was sent for me, not them," she stated, recalling the night. "Didn't have any interest in hurting Silver or Wanda and he's becoming significant in this team."

"He was very argumentative with you earlier," Tony added his own two cents. "He's never been like that with you."

"If he was planning on killing you, he wouldn't have sent Wanda with you," Steve counteracted. "He was injured."

"It was hardly a scratch, Steve."

"Like Logan said before, maybe the intent wasn't to kill," Ace said. "He doesn't like most of my ideas when it comes to business."

"So he's on this figurative list, too?" Tony asked for confirmation. Ace nodded. "Okay, anyone else?"

"We should talk about this later," Steve said, glancing at the clock above Tony's head. "We won't mention it to anyone else. Not Rhodey, not Pepper, Natasha or Clint or anyone. We'll set up another private meeting and go through the other possibilities. As for now... we'll pretend this conversation never happened."

"Don't worry, Stevie," Ace said, "I'm good at acting not-sketchy."

Now that Logan planted that idea into her head, she couldn't shake it away. Her heart felt empty.

* * *

**_Wanda_ **

Not much else was said in the meeting after everyone else was called in, unsurprisingly.

The tension of Logan's comment hung in the air as various people began pointing fingers at each other, accusing them of betraying the gang. The man who Ace called Rhodey said to Peter Quill that he was the one who was most likely to send someone after Ace, and then Peter Quill turned the blame to Logan and said he was the one who brought it up, while Logan smirked knowingly to himself, cigar hanging from his lips.

Wanda and Pietro stuck away from it since her older brother seemed to want nothing more than to keep her separated from everyone else, but Natasha, Pepper and Clint were close by.

Wanda didn't know the relationships between each person. Ace and Pietro acting hostile towards one another at the start shocked her since she saw how they acted before those men broke into their apartment, but judging by the reactions of the other people present, it was not that unusual.

Everyone listened to what Ace had to say, no matter what came out of her mouth, so Wanda deduced that she was an important member of the gang, and the fact that they were taking this attempted murder to heart like it was family, she guessed that it was a family unit of sorts, which made sense.

Tony Stark was the leader and Steve was kind of his sideman, his Commander. Everyone listened to Steve, too.

Peter Quill was... strange. He didn't fit into the dynamic, always acting too loose and relaxed compared to the stiff shoulders of the group, although it did make sense since someone was almost killed. People snapped at Quill left and right, no one seemed to trust him, so at first Wanda wondered why he was even there, as well as Gamora who contributed nothing to the meeting. Not like Wanda could talk, though.

She didn't say a single word in there, both due to not knowing the background of men's names that were mentioned more than once, like Strucker and Schmidt, and the fact she didn't understand how gangs worked. Wanda heard the names Strucker and Schmidt when she eavesdropped on Pietro and Ace, but other than that there was no context, so there was no understanding.

The only thing that was really concluded was that Wanda, Pietro and Ace would be staying at the Tower to avoid any more incidents, and that Tony's team would investigate more into what actually happened. He warned everyone to be careful and to inform him directly if anything at all happens, even if it's as small as a vehicle following them, and then ended the meeting.

He called for Wanda, Pietro and Ace to stay behind for a second and informed them that their clothes and other essentials would be taken to the Tower, then warning Ace not to leave under any circumstance unless he allowed it. Ace shrugged but didn't agree nor disagree, and then walked to her designated room. It took Wanda twenty full minutes to convince Pietro that she should have her own room, which Stark kindly supplied her with. That meant she was only a few rooms away from Ace's and one away from her brother’s.

Tony said he was going to order food for them to sit and eat at lunch, so after a few hours exploring the library, theatre and other cool things in the Tower - she was not expecting it to be this great - Wanda found herself stood in front of the dresser where her clothes were already unpacked, debating if she should dress up more than she usually would. Would Tony Stark want her to be fancy or did he even care? She would ask Pietro but would feel like a child again if she did.

Deciding on a pair of baby blue skinny jeans and a simple long sleeved black tee, Wanda made her way to the living room. Maybe it was best she didn't wear a dress and embarrass herself when he said to meet them in the living room, not a dining room or some fancy hall.

It was spacious, definitely bigger than her and Pietro's entire apartment, and they had a big and expensive apartment, with a long couch stretched in the middle in front of a large TV screen, smaller couches, beanbags and footrests scattered around.

The TV was playing an American movie which Wanda didn't recognise.

She saw that Pietro was sat in one of the smaller sofas with his feet propped up, one arm slung over the back of the couch and the other holding a cold beer. Tony Stark was settled on the long couch, an ankle resting on his knee and a clear hazel liquid sat inside a posh looking glass.

"Hey there,  _sestra_ ," Pietro greeted, tipping his beer towards her. "How are you settling in?"

Wanda fiddled with the sleeves of her tee and scuffled her toe on the floor, feeling Tony's gaze on her. "It is... very nice here," she answered truthfully. “I like it.”

"You were in the library for, like, two hours, right?" Tony asked, turning his neck on the sofa to look at her.

"I-I apologise, Mr. Stark-" she began with wide eyes.

" _Pfft_ ," he waved away her attempt at an apology. "No need to apologise, kiddo. At least you didn't break anything." He gave a short smile and then gestured around the living room. "Take a seat. Don't have to stand there looking like a lost lamb."

"I don't think she knows where to park her ass since you have so many fucking seats, Tony," Ace spoke from behind Wanda- very close behind Wanda. She felt goose bumps arise on her skin when the woman brushed past her, momentarily grazing her hand over the girl's covered shoulder in what felt like a reassuring squeeze. "I recommend one of the many beanbags. As soon as you sit, you ain't getting back up."

Ace, who was much more comfortable finding her way than Wanda, sat on the long couch a few feet away from Tony - yes, it was that big - and grabbed a glass of something that looked a lot like Tony's drink, only slightly browner, which Wanda didn't even realise was there. There were two bottles, too, but she could not read the labels.

Taking Ace's advice, she found the closest beanbag to Pietro and settled down on it, finding that it was in fact extremely comfortable. It was almost the size of a twin bed and because Wanda was short, it was even more cosier. She would argue that it was too big for a beanbag, but it was Tony Stark. He could probably spend thousands without batting an eyelid.

"Drink?" Tony asked Wanda, holding up the bottle of alcohol. Was it Whiskey?

"No, thank you." Her eyes darted to Ace without really thinking. The only person that actually treated Wanda like a child was her brother. She didn’t expect for anyone else to treat her like the adult she was. Ace argued against Pietro for her to be in the meeting and no one else disagreed. It was a nice feeling. She felt accepted, even if she wasn’t part of their family.

"Not everybody wants to drink liquid shit, Stark," Pietro said.

Both Ace and Tony looked at him, offended by the remark. "This liquid shit cost $600,000, ignorant swine," Tony argued. Six hundred  _thousand?_

"It tastes exactly the same as $10 stuff." Pietro seemed undeterred by the mention of the price.

"And  _that's_  why you're a lightweight, Silver," Ace butted in, raising an eyebrow as she poured more alcohol in her glass. "If you can't taste the difference between Scotch, Whiskey and Bourbon, 'means you're already drunk by the time you get to the Whiskey."

Tony raised his eyebrows. " _And_  you like beer."

"Don't diss beer, asshole," Ace leaned back on the sofa, propping her feet up on the table with her drink in hand. "Not everyone can spend half a million on alcohol every other day."

"Maybe not, but you can always do better than beer," Tony pointed out. "And get your feet off the table."

"Nope," Ace responded simply, flipping him off. She glanced at the TV screen, frowning at the choice of film but didn't comment.

Ace’s eyes drifted to Wanda's. She didn't realise she was staring openly at the woman and flushed when Ace gave her a little smirk. "How you settling in, baby sister?"

"Ace..." Pietro warned, trailing off. Wanda didn't even want to see the expression on his face.

"What?" Ace defended lightly, calloused fingers tapping against the side of the glass. The side of her face was resting on the sofa so she could look at him. "She's basically one of us now."

"She is nothing like you, Ace."

"He's not wrong," Tony backed up Pietro. Were they teasing or attacking Ace? Wanda couldn't tell. "She doesn't spend more time at bars than her own home, drink her own body weight every week, start fights every time she goes out, blatantly ignores orders, forgets to tell me important information..."

"One time, Tony," Ace argued. Wanda frowned, wondering about the back story on that one.

"She forgot to mention that she threatened one of Stark's biggest rivals, Tiberius Stone," Pietro told her, reading the confusion on her face. "He said he was going to destroy her reputation and then Stark Industries."

"Oh," Wanda breathed. Ace mentioned a Stone when she was telling Wanda about how she came into the gang.

"Didn't even have a positive reputation back then," she muttered. "And he wasn't exactly Prince fucking Charming- you know what? It doesn't matter anyway." Wanda could see that she was getting heated. It must have been a sore subject. "He's long dead now. Don't gotta worry about it."

"He's dead?" Wanda blurted unintentionally, not used to the casual talk of people dying unlike the other people in the room.

Ace's eyes flickered between Tony and Pietro, apparently realising she accidentally let something slip.

" _Nezabili sme ho, nebojte sa,_ " Pietro said. " _Nepýtaj sa na otázky, ktoré nechcete poznať. Porozprávame sa neskôr._ " Tony and Ace glanced at each other in confusion.

" _Poriadku. Ospravedlňujem sa, brat_ ," Wanda replied quietly so only he could hear, although no one else in the room spoke Slovak.

"Well..." Tony started but the elevator doors opening caught his attention instead. Wanda looked up and saw a kid a few years younger than her wearing a Carl's Jr. uniform, balancing about a dozen boxes and bags in front of him. It looked like he was struggling. "Oh, looks like food's here. You can shove everything on the table," he told the teen, waving a dismissive hand.

"Tony, you're such an asshole. You buy the entire menu and don't help him set everything out?" Ace muttered, shaking her head as she set her glass on the table. She stood up, flicking Tony on the ear as she walked towards the Carl's Jr. employee. "You doing alright, Pete?" she asked kindly, taking half the boxes from his pile. Wanda watched as he followed her to the dining area and helped set everything out on the gigantic table.

"I am  _not_  walking all the way over there-"

"And I don’t want to smell your nasty beef burrito, so deal with it," Ace cut Tony off. "And don't interrupt me. How you doing?"

"I-I'm doing okay," Peter nervously replied, hands shaking as he fit the order on the table.

"It's homecoming in a few weeks, right?" she asked. She seemed... softer around Peter, a bit like how she was around Wanda. She didn't speak gently, but there was a friendliness to her that Wanda didn't see when she was in the meeting, she... well, she looked like what a gang member would look like when talking in a group. "Got a hot date?" Peter stammered for a moment, caught off-guard, but a teasing shoulder nudge put him at ease. "Just messing about, Pete. Don't gotta tell me anything."

"She'll find out anyway," Tony pointed out from the couch.

"Zip it," Ace scolded, but had a tiny smile on her face. "I'll make sure Tony sends extra." She rubbed Peter's shoulder affectionately before he took off like there was a rocket tied to his feet, but no one seemed bothered. Was he usually that skittish? "Come get your food, everyone. I ain't your slave."

* * *

**_Ace_ **

It was around midnight.

Ace had her dozenth bourbon in hand, leaning back against the inside of the window frame, head resting on the window as she looked out into the night. The stars were barely visible due to a mixture of light pollution from the city and clouds blanketing the night sky, but Ace was looking at the city nights, imagining she was on top of the universe, looking down and seeing the bright lights clustered together.

She never had time to appreciate things like this. Maybe it sounded dumb, but Ace enjoyed feeling like a kid. It could be due to the fact that her childhood consisted of pick-pocketing people and learning to fight and survive on her own, but it didn't matter much in the end. The city was beautiful in the night. Not so much the day, however. New York traffic and the people in the city were a bitch.

Ace heard the gently pitter-patter of bare feet against tile getting closer to the living room. Huffing out a breath, she downed the rest of her drink and slightly winced at the burn that travelled over her tongue, down her throat and then settled like a fire in her stomach. It didn't matter how much you drank, downing liquor will always provoke a burning taste and negative reaction.

"A bit late to be up, don't you think?" Ace called out.

Wanda startled, nearly jumping off her feet with a hand clasped over her chest. "I-I am so sorry, I will..."

"Nah," she waved her apology away, "take a seat. New York's real pretty at night. Bet you've never seen it this high, kid."

The girl looked hesitant, but slowly moved towards where Ace was sat. She had the bottom of her oversized shirt bunched between her fists, legs completely bare save the short shorts that she wore the same day they were attacked.

Okay, Ace had at least two brain cells, so she knew that her close friend's sister was super-hot. Long wavy red hair, startling green eyes, a great body... even in the darkness, she could tell that the girl was flushed bright red. It was endearing.

"What do you think?" Ace asked when Wanda sat down similarly to her, legs pressed to her chest and arms wrapped around her legs.

"It is... pretty," she replied but there was no heart in it. Ace waited for a few moments, watching her expression shift ever so slightly. Her eyebrows drew together and her bottom lip pulled forward minutely into a small pout. "But..."

"It isn't home?" Ace finished with a sad smile.

"Yes," Wanda said. Her voice was quiet, would have been hard to hear if it wasn't for the deathly silence around them. "I do not remember many details from Slovakia, but I always remember the sunsets. They were beautiful." Ace's smile turned genuine, closed lipped but happy. "We lived near the mountains so Pietro would sometimes take me to the roof of our home and we would watch as the sun lowered. It would always disappear in between two of the mountains, different colours like purple, red, orange... You could see every star in the sky. There was no... street lamps. Only a lake on one side of our house and the mountains around us."

"That sounds nice," Ace said softly. "I... Well, I was born in Italy. My parents were in the Sicilian Mafia.” She chuckled at Wanda's expression. “I know, right? Breaking stereotypes left and right. I guess to put it simply they weren't the greatest parents, but I had... I guess he was a tutor of sorts, but he was more of a father if anything. He taught me when my parents wouldn't. Helped me learn Italian and made me fluent in English, taught me basics and everything else. One day, after a pretty bad night, not too long before I moved to America, I was about 9 or 10, I just... ran." Wanda listened with obvious interest, eyes bright and invested. "Ended up on top of some restaurant and watched the sun go down. Obviously, my parents were pissed as hell and it wasn't like purple and red like Slovakia, but it was still gorgeous to look at." Ace's lip twitched at the memory before she remembered herself. "Sorry, kinda turned it to me."

"Do not apologise," Wanda whispered. "You are... You are a very interesting person. I enjoy listening to your stories."

Ace's heart skipped a beat in her chest and she felt like some sick high-schooler.  _The girl is nearly a decade younger than you. Pull yourself together_. "Eh, everyone else hates listening to my shit. Always get competitive and try to one-up my stories."

"Somehow, I doubt that they can," she said.

Ace grinned. "Damn right, kid. No one can beat Ace." She mentally cringed at the use of third-person.

"Do you... mind if I ask what your real name is?" Wanda tried with curious eyes. God, those eyes...

"Never hesitate to ask me anything," Ace stated, raising an eyebrow. She pulled her knee up and rested her forearm on it. "My name isn't a sensitive subject or anything, just something that I like keeping to myself. I guess it's the only thing I can control. But Ace isn't just a nickname, it's... hm, it's just my name now. Sometimes I even forget what I was born with." She thought for a moment, pulling the corner of her lip into her mouth. "Anyway, I'm heading off to kip." She braced her hands on her knees and stood up, groaning quietly as her knees clicked.

"Goodnight," Wanda spoke so softly Ace almost didn't hear her.

"'Night, kid." Ace stopped before she left, looking the girl in the eye. "And if you ever need anything..." she trailed off, hoping that Wanda could finish the thought.

"I know. Thank you, Ace."


	4. Trickery

**_Ace_ **

The next few days were filled with meetings and various people being sent out to spy on potential suspects. The only people aware of Tony's suspicions about the team were Ace, Steve, they told Natasha and Clint after deeming the pair trustworthy, Bruce and Pepper heard it from Tony, and Thor confronted Ace about it in his usual loud manner and she quietly asked him to keep it on the low.

Other than that, no one else knew what they were doing, and they planned to keep it that way. Everyone else apart from the ' _OG Group_ ' as Clint called it knew. Not Pietro, not Rhodey, not Happy, not Logan, although Ace suspected he knew much more than he was letting on.

After the third day, though, she became frustrated. With Steve for holding back punches when they sparred, Tony because he was coddling her, Pietro since he was coddling Wanda, and Wanda because that girl was too nice for her own good. Way too nice to be a part of The Avengers.

When Ace walked into the kitchen, she saw the girl wearing shorts and a thin top and it took all self-control to keep her cool, reminding herself that she was Pietro's little sister. Wanda asked if she wanted anything and Ace replied calmly, watching for a few moments as she stirred something in a pot, oblivious to the pair of eyes trained on her.

As Quill once said, if it had two legs and no dick, Ace would fuck it.

Which was how she ended up sat at a bar in Hell's Kitchen - Josie's. It was the only place she could relax, not have to worry about having fists flown in her face by patrons because Josie herself, the bartenders and the bouncers had respect for Ace.

When the bar was being overcrowded by gang violence and fights, Ace stopped it singlehandedly. People like Kingpin, Black Mariah and the Purple Man were strong, but none were stronger than her.

The smaller gang leaders never got their hands dirty so Ace had to track them down with Bruce's help, gave them a little something to remember so they'd leave Hell's Kitchen alone. When Josie offered her cash payment in return for her act, Ace refused, but when Josie said that she didn't have to pay for drinks for as long as she was alive, Ace accepted it.

Maybe it was selfish, but she didn't care. She saved lives, for god’s sake.

Knowing that Tony was going to throttle her as soon as he found out she went out alone, Ace calmly drained four fingers of Bourbon. She ordered another one, downed it, another one, downed that too, and then asked for a beer, deciding that getting shit-faced wouldn't be her best option right now.

A dark-haired man sat on the stool next to her.

He didn't glance her way as he ordered a straight whiskey, didn't acknowledge she was there as the waitress, Rosario, gave him the drink, didn't bat an eyelid when Rosario gave Ace the look, silently asking her if everything was okay. With a slow nod, Ace brought the neck of the bottle to her lips and gulped down half the thing in one go.

After a few tense moments, he spoke.

"Why did you call me here?"

Ace set down her beer on a coaster, giving a small nod to Josie who was peering around the corner of the kitchen with a concerned look on her face.

"Do you think I'm a danger to the group, Bucky?" she asked, her eyes trained back forward.

She saw from her peripheral that he shook his head slowly, confused. "What? Of course, I don't. What's going on with you, Ace?"

Ace carefully reached into the back of her jeans and produced a knife from her pocket.

Before Bucky had a chance to react, she grabbed him the back of his neck and pushed the tip of his blade against his throat. Their chairs slid forward, her thighs framing his legs and their heads pressed close together. Bucky's long hair covered the weapon, but everyone in the bar knew what was going on. They all knew what she was capable of.

"Let me rephrase, buddy," she whispered, voice dripping with ice. "Did you send someone to kill me the other night?"

Bucky's eyes were unafraid as usual, but Ace could see the glint of danger in his eyes. "I think you already know the answer to that," he replied coolly.

"Hm," Ace huffed, pulling the knife away from his throat and stabbing it onto the surface of the bar in front of her. "Thought as much." She grabbed the edge of the mahogany bar and moved her chair back to its original position, sighing heavily.

"How much have you been drinking?" he questioned quietly.

"Sorry 'bout the, uh, knife thing," she apologised, waving her arm around aimlessly. "I haven't spoken to you in probably nearly a year. I've, uh. Been a bit on edge lately... hah, on  _edge_. Yeah, I shouldn't even be here, Buck. Stark's gonna have a fucking heart attack if he doesn't kill me first, Steve's gonna have an aneurysm... god, everyone's gonna think that I'm actually dead.  _Shit_." She hung her head between her shoulders, hands pressed against her eyes.

"Ace," he spoke softly. She felt a hand place itself on her shoulder. His prosthetic hand, she realised. "Talk to me. What happened?"

"Someone was sent to fucking kill me," she whispered, breathing heavily. "Don't give a shit about that, I've been stabbed and shot more times than I've been outside, it's jus'... fuck. There's a fucking traitor in the group, Buck. Sent a Hydra goon to kill me when I was with Silver. Didn't succeed but... damn, I don't trust anyone anymore, Tony obviously and Steve, but no one else. Can't even look Tash or Clint in the eye without getting suspicious."

"Do you trust me?" Bucky asked carefully.

"Yes," Ace replied without an ounce of hesitation. "I trust you, Buck. You... You're like a brother to me. You've done a lot for me and, well, what was left of my family before he fucking died. I just needed to make sure. Might be a good liar but you can't fool me, man. Wouldn't even hate you if you did send someone to shoot my ass, lord knows I deserve it." She snorted. "Still, shouldn't've used my knife on you." She raised her head to look at the blade sticking out of the wood, eyes glassy. "You know how I get when I drink."

"Ace, if someone out there wants you  _dead_ \--"

" _Pfft_ , everyone wants me dead."

"Someone that you  _know_ , if it really was an Avenger." Ace could see that he was beginning to get frustrated. He always had this demeanour about him, not calm but not exactly angry either. Calculating, she guessed. Or impassive, collected, some other shit like that. He was starting to lose that demeanour. He always did when he was around Ace. She was good at making people lose their cool. "You shouldn't be here, in public. If someone nearly got you in Maximoff's apartment, they can easily get you at your local bar."

"At least I'll die happy," she muttered.

"This isn't a joke," he said darkly. "Hydra isn't some low level gang, Ace. It isn't like Hammer or Stone, or what you used to be a part of. And you're not exactly someone of non-importance, you're not expendable. What would happen if you died? If they succeeded in killing you?"

Ace opened her mouth to come up with some kind of snarky reply, like everyone's life would be much easier, but she really thought about it. "Well..." she began. "Tony is an impulsive guy so he'd probably take matters into his own hands. Or literally have a heart attack and die before he could. And if Stark died, your dear husband would be pissed off and have an aneurysm, too - by the way, please don't tell Steve about this, he will actually kill me for even involving you - and then him dying would set off a chain reaction with  _you-_ -"

"The Avengers would fall apart," he cut in, silencing the woman with just those five words. "Tony would be heartbroken and angry and he would take it personally. He sees you like this child and yeah, you won't ever admit this to anyone but you love him like he's your parent, Pepper, too." Ace's jaw ticked. In anger? From trying to stop tears from falling? She didn't know. "Steve was your mentor when you first began, I was with him when he’d talk about how proud of you he was, how he knew that you were going to become something amazing. He was the first person to ever hear you speak, remember?" Of course she remembered. "It might not have been a big thing for you, but for him it felt like he won the lottery."

"If you're trying to guilt trip me, asshole..."

"This isn't an intervention," Bucky stated. "I'm saying that if you don't want to live for yourself, at least try and live for the people around you. If it wasn't for Steve..." His eyes flickered away, throat bobbing. "I doubt I'd even be here."

"That's the thing, though. You have a husband who loves you, Tony has a wife to go back to every night, Clint and Natasha have each other, even Silver has his little sister, but me?" She shook her head, mouth twitching. "I don't have anything to go home to. I don't even have a fucking home anymore and the people who I'm supposed to trust... can't even trust them anymore."

"Ace?" an all-too familiar, extremely angry voice called out from the entrance, earning strange looks from the other patrons.

"I can hear the aneurysm already," Ace whispered, ducking her head as if it could hide her from her impending doom.

"Ace," he repeated, much lower and much scarier, and  _definitely_  much closer.

"Take it easy on her, baby," Bucky tried reassuring the man, placing his flesh hand over his bicep.

"Take it  _easy_  on her?”

"Why the hell did you call him, Buck?" Ace asked hushed, still keeping her face hidden.

"He's my husband, Ace," Bucky answered. "And whenever you call, it's never a good thing. Especially when you're at a bar. Drinking."

"Go home, Bucky," Steve ordered his husband. Even with her back facing him, she could feel the daggers being pointed at her back. "No, I  _don't_  want to hear it. Don't wait up for me tonight, okay?"

There was a short pause of hesitation, but Bucky apparently folded and walked out of the bar.

"We have a lot to discuss."

* * *

Tony was pacing the living room back and forth when Ace walked in, Steve's hand wrapped around her arm, both steadying her and keeping her from running off. But it wasn't just Tony in the room. Natasha was sat between Clint and Pepper on the sofa, Thor was looking out of the window with a furrow in his brow, even Sam Wilson was there, leaning against the back of the sofa.

"Was the backup really necessary?" Ace murmured. Judging by Steve's grip tightening on her arm and his eyes glaring into the side of her head, it was the wrong thing to say.

Tony stopped his pacing as soon as he heard her voice, and his eyes were scarily blank, but they looked teary. "Was it  _necessary?_ " he repeated. "You're asking me if it's necessary to call people together when you go missing and don't answer your phone  _three days_  after someone was sent to kill you? You were out in the open, drinking, when you know someone is after you. You know, just..." he rubbed his eyes in irritation. "It's midnight, everyone's tired. Go to sleep and we'll talk in the morning when you're sober."

Ace nodded, guilt eating her from the inside. God, she was a fucking moron.

* * *

Tony was right when he said they would talk in the morning, but boy did he  _talk_. It wasn't anything that Ace hadn't become used to since she was known for being a shit who didn't listen, but she tried to listen to him. She really did. Bucky's words registered with her -  _he sees you like a child -_ and Ace could be described as many things, but selfish wasn’t one of them... well, it was pretty low down on the list.

She understood his frustration, why he was pissed off with her and why he would think she was dead, but she wasn't going to change her entire self for a single fuck up. He made it seem like she only had one option and that was to sit still and wait while the other guys did all the dirty work, and that wasn't who Ace was. She wasn't one to sit and do nothing.

Tony eventually settled down after talking at her for 15 minutes - she was grateful that Steve was the only other one present - and said that she could go out as long as she informed someone else and sent a text every once in a while, so they wouldn't think she was dead.

Ace wasn't actually planning on going out, anyway, she really wasn't. But after a training session with Pietro, since she was still his mentor and was basically responsible for his wellbeing, Ace got a message on her work phone. From Red Skull. Johann Schmidt. The leader of Hydra.

**We know who is behind your attempted murder. Meet us at the following location. Do not bring backup.**

Yeah, okay, that last sentence in particular was very concerning and almost made Ace want to call up Steve and ask him to be nearby, but she couldn't fuck this up. The only thing she was apparently consistent with was fucking things up, so that's how she ended up parked outside an abandoned bay in an equally abandoned Port Jefferson, two hours away from Stark's Tower.

"I'm about to meet up with Jess," Ace said into the receiver, staring out of the dusty window of her Jeep. "Nothing too scary, just drinking vodka following rage-fuelled sex, probably. I'll text you in about an hour."

" _Try not to get a UTI_ ," Tony said. " _And be careful out there, you hear me? No... getting killed, or whatever the kids are doing these days._ "

"Got it, old man. And I'm 29, Tony, hardly a kid." And then she hung up, not before sending Jessica Jones a message asking her to confirm with Tony that Ace was with her. The woman was weird but trustworthy, knew how to keep a secret like it was the only thing she knew.

Ace stepped out of her vehicle and rolled up the sleeves of her leather jacket as she walked towards the large container ship where Schmidt would be waiting, no doubt with his entourage.

She rounded the corner and saw a large concrete space, lanterns spread around the floor to light it up without being too obvious. There were around 10 other men excluding the man himself, all big and heavy-looking with guns on display. Schmidt was stood in front of one of the lanterns, his face shrouded in darkness, wearing a long coat with his hands clasped behind his back.

As soon as she was spotted, the men flanking Schmidt had their hands secured around the handle of their gun, fingers placed against the trigger, but Ace didn't take it to heart. Schmidt ordered the men to stand down and they did without question, taking a step back.

"Friendly atmosphere," Ace commented, taking in the cold stares and silent threats being thrown her way. "I wasn't expecting anything fancy but come on... an abandoned shipyard. Really? A warehouse would have been less conspicuous than this."

"I thank you for not bringing your _men_ ," Schmidt stated, the last word leaving his tongue with a sour taste. His accent was very heavy and very German. It reminded Ace of Pietro when he first joined, but Pietro wasn't a shit-faced coward. "Although I must apologise for my guards--"

"I don't give a shit, Skully," she cut him off, smiling a little, and sauntered towards the leader until she was a few feet in front of him. His faux-welcoming attitude dropped like a penny. "A wise guy once said, ' _of all the gin joints in the world, she walks into mine_ '. Do you know what that means?" His mouth opened to speak but shut again with a bitter smile taking place when she cut in with, "Let me tell you anyway. It means coincidences don't just happen and Rick Blaine isn't the stupid asshole you think I am. I let it slide when your UC feds threw me into a prison with people who wanted to bludgeon me and the, uh,  _many_  other times I've been stabbed and shot and tortured by your guys, on your orders." Ace took a moment to relish in the startled look on his face. "But hey, we're past that now, right?" She smiled closed-lipped, sweetly. "You stab me in my back, I stab you in yours. You kill people close to me and hey, I'll return the favour."

"Ace, we have already discussed the unfortunate death of your brother," he pointed out. "I have information on your attack."

Ace's lips parted and her tongue came to rest on her bottom lip. The corner of her mouth twisted into a smile but it went as soon as it came, settling into a passive grin. "Lay it on me." She took an overdrawn step back and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Thank you." Schmidt gave a short nod and turned back to the stoic leader his men knew, back straight and chin up like he was looking down at Ace, as though she were some vermin on the bottom of his shoe. "An anonymous source came to Raoul, the man you killed, and offered him a handsome amount of money to scare you away."

"That's all the information you have?" Ace asked, close to exasperated. "That someone told him to scare me away?"

Schmidt's lips spread into an ugly smile. "I think we know each other quite well by now, Ace. Since you were... 17, correct? I believe that is when we first met. You know that information comes at a price. What I want in return is information on what your Iron Man is working on."

Ace's amused expression dropped into something of a threat. Not an  _I'll-kill-you_  kind of look, but  _I-will-definitely-make-you-regret-what-you-just-said_  look. "You disappoint me, Skully," she sighed through her nose, lip twitching. "You think I'm stupid which is a nice change. I hate it when people overestimate me, think that I have the solution to every single problem when in reality I'm just... human. I fuck up a lot more than I probably should. But you, right now, have just fucked yourself so far up your own ass that you can taste your own jizz."

Schmidt still had that knowing smile on his face. "I think I am in a better position than you right now." He shrugged, holding his arms up and gesturing to the dozen men surrounding him. "You can walk away and get no information, or you can tell me what I want to know, and I will tell you everything I know. Either way, you will not get hurt."

"You really think I'd betray my old man like that?" Ace asked, uncrossing her arms and letting them fall to her sides.

"I believe you are thinking about it," he stated, self-assured.

Ace clicked her tongue and looked at the concrete ground, chuckling under her breath. "You're cute, Skully, you know that? I might not have brought backup, but I didn't come in without a plan."

Without any warning, Ace pulled out a pistol from a hidden holster on her waist, but unlike what the henchmen were expecting - to shoot Schmidt between his beady eyes - she pointed the barrel of the gun at herself. Her fingers were clasped around the handle and thumb hovering over the trigger, pressed against the space between her ribs.

"What do you think you are doing?" Schmidt demanded, losing his composure. Even in the dim light she could see his face was bright red.

"Give me the information, or I shoot myself." She smiled brightly, no teeth showing. "And- oh, shit. Forgot to explain," she tutted, holding her free hand out, palm facing the stunned man, "if a bullet goes through me, my heart rate will either spike furiously or it will drop like a dime, right? Well, I thought I'd make a little device that detects my heart rate - my own work, of course - so if anything goes sideways, it'll send a signal straight to every member of The Avengers and, well, imagine what'll happen when they come running and see me bleeding out."

"This is absurd," the man hissed, the corners of his lips pulling together in a scowl. "You would dare--?"

"Oh, boy, but I would dare," Ace told him. She didn't acknowledge the masses of weapons being pointed at her. "But let me just make it a bit more real for you. Notice my leather gloves?" His eyes narrowed at her. "Yeah. I transferred some fingerprints from the meeting you had with Iron Man on his table and placed them all over this gun. I mean, you wouldn't detect a single other one aside from yours, and yeah, I know what you're thinking:  _but Ace, I'm recording this entire conversation with the phone in my pocket!_ "

The look on his face... damn, she wanted to take a picture and hang it on her wall, it was so amazing.

"I was listening to every word you said," Ace continued, "and the recording miraculously cut out after you said that you were going to decieve me." She smiled mockingly. "And I know you would never hurt me, Skully. But no one else knows that. So... what's it gonna be? Do I shoot myself and incriminate you and your entire organisation, or do you want to give me everything you know?" She felt a bit like the Joker in that Dark Night scene, the one where he's threatening to blow himself up with a bunch of grenades lined up in his jacket? It was sick, but it was all part of the job.

"You would deceive your so-called team like this? By blatantly lying when I have witnesses around me?"

"Like your guys would ever go against your word. You know everyone would call bullshit on that." Ace snorted. "And yes, I would deceive them. Because I'm selfish and want to know who's after me. I’ve had enough of waiting."

Schmidt grumbled something low under his breath in German. She knew a little because of Natasha teaching her, so she made out the word  _bitch_. He glared at her for a solid twenty seconds, chest heaving and hands fisted by his sides.

"I do not know who it is that betrayed you," he informed her, finally giving in. "But I know that someone in Hydra is planning to meet with this contact who arranged to scare you. In two weeks at the Steuben Parade in New York."

"The German-American organisation?" she asked for confirmation.

"Yes," Schmidt bit out. "And there is no guest list, but it will not matter since whoever wants you away will use a false name."

"Well," Ace breathed out a crass laugh, stepping back with the gun still pressed to her body and her hand in the air, "this was an exciting meeting. Don't worry, I won't tell anyone about what went on here and I hope you do the same." Giving a wink to the flustered man, Ace turned around and made her way to her Jeep. "Don't shoot me in the back, boys."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ace is everything I aspire to be tbh.


	5. Kingpin

 

**_Wanda_ **

Wanda was sitting in the communal kitchen early morning, brewing a coffee for Pietro and Ace to come down to. Wanda wasn't a huge fan of coffee as it always tasted too bitter to her, but she guessed that was why a lot of people liked it. She preferred tea, anyhow.

She found herself feeling more relaxed around Ace, now that she lived with her and spent more time with the woman. Pietro usually hovered over them protectively, but when they had their moments alone, it was nice. It made her feel at ease.

Wanda was a little surprised when Pietro and Ace walked out of the elevator together, both wearing gym clothes. Pietro had on some sweats and a wife-beater, while Ace donned a pair of skin-tight shorts with a black tank top and hoodie. They both looked tired, but Pietro was a bit sweatier.

"Good morning,  _malá sestra_ ," Pietro greeted, leaning in to kiss his sister on the cheek but she ducked away.

"You're sweaty," she said, wincing when she caught a whiff of his armpit. "Put on some deodorant, brother."

Pietro gasped, offended, and Ace stifled a snort behind her hand. "How dare you betray me, Wanda!" he exclaimed dramatically.

"She has a point, Silver," Ace remarked. She wrapped an arm around Wanda's smaller frame and pulled her towards her body, resting her cheek on the top of Wanda's head. She was warm, and the hoodie she was wearing was comfortable against Wanda's face. The girl had to stop herself from sinking into the embrace. "See? No flinching. Because I can control my sweat glands."

Ace patted Wanda on the head and pulled away, diverting to one of the two coffee cups sat on the table. "Thanks for the coffee. You should become the resident chef, baby sister."

"Ace," Pietro warned.

"Silver," Ace mocked. "Chill out, man. I'm not gonna jump her."

Pietro rolled his eyes and for the brief moment he looked away to take his own cup, Ace sent a sly wink towards Wanda.

Despite the constant flirting that Wanda had grown used to, she still flushed.

It was usually when they were alone, but even if they were having dinner together with Tony and Pietro, Ace always found a way to make her feel flustered. She winked, blew teasing kisses, let her teeth bite into her lower lip when she caught Wanda staring, and grinned when Wanda would blush, like she was now.

But there was also the stuff that Ace didn't realise she did, that made Wanda feel things that she shouldn't.

The constant lingering touches when she patted her on the shoulder, how she sometimes held onto Wanda's waist if she was reaching over to grab something, how she teased the girl's shorter height when she tried grabbing something from a higher shelf, and their conversations. Ace was always intrigued, even fascinated, by Wanda's life now and in Slovakia. Wanda would share stories and Ace returned them with her own, and Wanda was equally interested with some of the things she trusted with her. Whether it was from her time in Italy to the early days of The Avengers, it was nice to listen to.

"Were you training?" Wanda asked the two, sipping her tea.

"Yup," Ace answered, blowing on her hot coffee. Wanda had to divert her eyes away from the movement of the woman's lips. "Trying to teach him how to do a knee slide without losing his balance."

Wanda's eyebrows furrowed. "Like what you did in our apartment?" She remembered that rather well, even if it was weeks ago.

"Yeah." Ace smiled. "Exactly. Hear that, Pietro?" She nudged his ribs. "You called my knee slide stupid but apparently it sticks in the skull, huh?"

"And it makes you look cool," Wanda agreed quietly, earning a wide grin from Ace.

Pietro glowered at the two. "I swear, it feels like my knees are about to be ripped out of my skin," he grumbled.

"You wouldn't feel that way if you just listened to my advice," Ace said in a sing-song voice, bringing the coffee to her lips. Wanda couldn't help but feel slightly giddy when Ace's lips parted into a soft smile after taking a sip. "Tastes good, as always." She held up the cup in a ' _cheers!_ ' gesture.

Wanda ducked her head to hide her proud smile.

_She liked it!_

"I'm gonna head out in a bit," Ace told the siblings. "Apparently Kingpin's been keeping coke up his ass, giving it to hookers before sending 'em off on the other side of the ocean."

Pietro frowned as he gulped down his coffee. "I thought Matt and Foggy sorted that out last year? And didn't you kick him out of Hell's Kitchen after Josie's?"

"You think Fisk is gonna listen to a blind lawyer and his friend that looks like a lesbian?" Ace asked, cocking an eyebrow. "And I didn't kick him out, just nudged him away and kindly asked him to keep it on the low." Even after knowing Ace for only a few weeks, Wanda guessed that she didn't ask kindly. Or even ask, for that matter. "Still, he's getting too big for his boots again. Selling hookers  _and_  coke?"

Pietro hummed and looked back down at his mug.

"What are you going to do?" Wanda decided to ask, her voice quiet.

"Aw," Ace smiled sweetly with squinted eyes, "you worried about me?"

Wanda had to fight off her blush. "No, I'm just curious."

Ace raised a quizzical eyebrow towards Pietro, who looked reluctant but nodded anyway, giving the woman permission.

"Well," Ace began, setting down her coffee cup, "I've already set up a meeting with him in his office. He's gonna have a couple of his men with him, and I'm bringing Clint."

"Isn't that dangerous?" Wanda questioned. "Bringing just Clint?"

Ace smiled like she was glad she asked. "If I bring more than that, it'll look like I'm scared. If I bring just one person and he has a fuck ton, then he'll look like a bigger asshole." Her eyes flickered to Pietro, who was listening to the conversation, too. "So, we set a meeting. He'll already know why I'm paying him a visit so there's no need to lie about that. Tash and Steve are gonna be my back-up's back-up, so if shit goes sideways and Fisk doesn't comply, they can get the hookers and leave."

"What if you get stuck?" Wanda had to admit, the more she heard the more worried she felt.

Pietro snorted.

"Then I get myself out." Ace shrugged. "Clint's gonna be my main priority while I'm in there, so I'd save his ass before I save my own. Not like he'd need it, he's a damn good fighter."

"Aw, shucks." Clint stepped out of the elevator with one hand over his heart, the other carrying a bag of something. Were they breadsticks? "You keep saying shit like that and people'll think you actually like me, Ace."

"Don't want that," Ace muttered as she pushed herself from the stool. "I'll get dressed and be down in 5. Got all my equipment?"

"Of course, your majesty."

"Good." The woman nodded, ignoring Clint's clear sarcasm. She ruffled Pietro's hair and grinned as he grumbled in Slovak under his breath, and gently squeezed Wanda's shoulder as she passed her. "And you're not bringing those damn breadsticks."

Clint's mouth widened and he stared at Ace in what looked like utter disgust. "Not bringing my damn breadsticks, my  _ass_ —"

"The last time you brought breadsticks, Clint, you risked your life for them and almost got shot," Ace argued, not having it. "Leave them in the car with Steve and Natasha, at least."

 _That sounds like a story_ , Wanda thought.

Ace gave a salute to Pietro and Wanda as she stepped into the elevator with Clint, and then she was gone.

Wanda didn't realise she was staring at the closed doors of the elevator, chewing her lip with a furrow between her brows, until Pietro leaned over and squeezed her hand.

" _Budú v poriadku_ ," he assured.  _They will be okay._

Wanda nodded but didn't quite believe him.

* * *

_**Ace** _

"Wait, we're actually talking to Fisk?" Clint asked from the backseat, a breadstick hanging from his mouth.

Resisting the urge to take the carb stick out of his mouth to throw out it out of the window, Ace replied, "We've still got our priorities," and shut off her Jeep's engine.

"Yeah, someone being sent to murder you just two weeks ago should be our second priority," Clint retorted.

"There are underage girls being forced to take coke before being sent off to pimps to be whored out," Ace pointed out. "Business is business, Clint. I can't keep hiding out in the Tower."

"You should probably go in now," Steve advised, sat next to Clint. "Don't wanna keep the man waiting."

"The comms working?" Ace asked Natasha, who was holding a device in her hand.

"Everything's ready to go," Natasha confirmed. "Press the comm's button three times and we'll be there in a minute. Be careful, Ace."

"You, too, Tash," Ace muttered and stepped out of the vehicle, Clint following close behind.

"Things still tense between you and Steve, huh?" Clint asked, moving to walk by her side. "Don't think I've seen you two that bad since Barnes lost his arm."

"Focus, Clint," Ace told the man as they approached Fisk's office. "There's a good chance we're gonna get shot at. We can talk about my relationships later."

"Will you ever acknowledge your emotions?"

"In my final dying breaths."

They walked through the front doors and was met with the receptionist, who immediately directed them to the elevator and informed them that Fisk was in the penthouse. Ace thanked her and the pair stepped into the elevator side-by-side.

Ace rolled the sleeves of her leather jacket to her elbows and checked her hidden waist holster. Her gun was safely nestled inside, and she could feel the hidden blades sat in each combat boot.

"All good?" Clint asked.

"As always," Ace stated. "I want you to stay behind me, Clint. At all times. Lean against the wall or something. Look nonchalant."

"You know Fisk won't kill you, right?"

"There's a difference between can't and won't," she said. It might sound cocky, but that didn't make it any less true. "And I'm your superior for today. Gotta do as I say, or I'll report you to Tony."

"Fucking asshole," Clint grumbled, and Ace's lip twitched into a smile.

The elevator stopped and the two stepped right into Fisk's office.

It was a large room with a long desk in the centre, two guards situated on both sides and another two guards in each corner stood in front of mirrors. It was strangely symmetrical, but Wilson Fisk had a strange taste for art.

The man himself was sat behind his desk with a newspaper in front of him, wearing a black suit with a black shirt, the first button undone. Ace knew why the man was so powerful in Hell's Kitchen; he was intimidating. Large, burly, and he had an air about him that most people couldn't pull off, especially mob bosses. It's why Black Mariah was swiftly kicked out of Harlem, because she tried to act like a powerful leader when she wasn't. She was expendable, but Fisk wasn't. Ace might not like the man, but she respected him.

"Ace," he greeted in a low voice. "Barton."

Clint nodded and stepped away from Ace to lean against the wall, his arms crossed over his chest.

"It's been a while, Kingpin," Ace said, taking a few steps closer so she was a foot away from his desk. One of the guard's shifted, hand twitching to grab the gun from his holster most likely, but Fisk's subtle head shake made the guard drop his arm by his side. "Didn't know you were hiring new guards."

The man kept his expression impassive, but she saw the twitch of his lip. "I hear we have business to discuss."

"Well, it's cute that you think I'd actually come here for a catch-up, but yes, we have business to discuss." She gave a closed-lipped smile and shoved her hands in the pockets of her leather jacket. "Did you know that Groundhog Day is one of my favourite movies?" She didn't wait to see if he would reply or not, though she doubted he would. "Phil, you know, Bill Murray's character, has a line that really stuck with me. 'I'm  _a_  god, not  _the_  god'. A lot of people interpret the line differently, but I think he got cocky. Being stuck in an infinite loop will do that to a man, make him feel like he's on top of the world."

"Is this going anywhere?" Fisk asked. "This is becoming a waste of my time."

"Yeah. The analogy of that is that you're Phil, and you're getting too big for your fucking boots." Ace chuckled, digging her teeth into her lower lip. "You really think that you can go under my nose, Kingpin? You threatened and terrorised Josie's Bar and I let you off pretty lightly, more lightly than I would have if it was anyone else. You were pulling money out of my ass to sell meth to foreigners, and I cut ties with you. I let you off pretty easy, didn't I?" She removed her hands from her pockets and placed them on the desk, leaning down to face Fisk directly. "But now you're giving coke to hookers and you're selling them while they're high off their asses, probably being raped as we speak." She shrugged. "Third time's a charm, you know."

Fisk's lips tightened and he let out a brash laugh. "Murdock."

"Not Murdock," Ace bit out. "You're getting sloppy, Kingpin. And you're making me lose my respect for you. Remember what happened to your friend James Wesley when he refused to stop sending underage girls to Thailand for the highest bidder?" She paused for effect, leaning in closer. "He was shot in the head. Trust me, Kingpin, when I say that I'm willing to face the consequences if you don't do as I say." She slammed her hands on the table and although Fisk didn't jump, his shoulders tightened. "Find another way to make money without pissing me off."

With that, Ace turned on her heel and left, Clint taking a moment to stare at the guards to make sure they wouldn't make any sudden moves before he followed her into the elevator.

Ace was eerily calm as they rode down the elevator silently, not even glancing over at him as they walked out of the building. She saw the Jeep with Natasha sat in the driver's seat and Steve next to her.

Clint slowed his step and turned to Ace.

"You okay?" he asked. "Wasn't expecting it to go that short."

"I'm good. He's just a fucking asshole," she answered curtly, taking a moment to eye her car. "I'm gonna head to Josie's."

"You sure? I don't think Tony'll be too happy with that."

"He told me to always tell someone if I'm going out," Ace said. "Hey, Clint, I'm going out." She smiled and briskly patted him on the shoulder. "There, I told someone."

Clint sighed, opened his mouth, and closed it again. "You're really good at pissing people off, Ace," he said eventually. "No wonder someone wants you dead."

Ace shrugged. "Can't blame 'em, can you?"

He rolled his eyes. "You want a lift?"

"Nah, it's only a 15-minute walk." She waved it off, turning to walk away. "Make sure Stevie doesn't have an aneurysm," she called over her shoulder.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A kinda short one but the next one is gonna be a shlong boy. I really need a beta to proof-read my stories lmao, end me please.
> 
> Hope you enjoyed this chapter!

**Author's Note:**

> Do Wanda x OFC's even exist on AO3?
> 
> They do now.


End file.
